| Medium: | oil on canvas |
| Size: | 20 x 36 in (51 x 91 cm) |
| Inscription: | l/l "FSchafer", in the artist's characteristic block-letter hand, initials conjoined in a monogram |
| Verso: | Said to be "View from Beacon Hill, Victoria, B.C." (covered) |
| Provenance: | In private collection, Victoria, B.C., by 1986; to The British Columbia Visual Records Archive, Victoria, B.C., June 1986. |
| Exhibited: | Keeping the Records Straight, Emily Carr Gallery, Victoria, B.C., a 1990 exhibition of objects from the B.C. Archives. (See note 1) |
| Reproductions: | The Craigdarroch Castle Historical Museum Society photograph 986-126 |
| Citations: | British Columbia Archives visual records catalog, record PDP02284 |
| Site: | View looking east from atop Beacon Hill, Victoria, with Mount Baker in the distance and the governor's residence (Cary Castle, also known as Government House) on a hilltop at the left. Mount Baker is about three times as large as it should be at this distance. |
| Description: | A large, snow-covered stratovolcano (Mount Baker) stands in the center viewed down a hill, across a field with cows and a hayshed, and past forested hills on either side. The cloudless sky is blue at the top, shading to tinges of purple near the horizon. Near the top of the hillside at the left is a large, white house (Cary Castle), while a farmhouse stands at the right of the field. The nearby slope is grass-covered with a few low bushes, and there are two prominent conifers standing a the base of the slope with several more at the right. (From the painting, 9 September 1998) |
| Note: | (1) A report in (Victoria, British Columbia) The Daily Colonist of Saturday, 20 January 1990, says "…a painting by Frederick Schafer of Government House and Fairfield with Mount Baker in the Background…" is on display in The British Columbia Visual Records Archive display space. In 1990 the BC Archive possessed only two Schafer paintings, which suggests the reported painting is probably this one with a descriptive retitling. (2) One cannot currently see the Cary Castle from the top of Beacon Hill; the view in that direction is obscured by a grove of trees, but it is visible from points on the side of the hill. The Castle appears in the painting in its original (1860) form, having burned and been rebuilt in 1903 and again in the 1920's. |
| In index(es): | Title list, cabins, farmhouses, and similar structures, miscellaneous other well-known landmarks, Pacific northwest coast and Victoria, British Columbia, pastoral and rural scenes, twenty representative works by the artist, paintings currently held in museums and public collections |
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